1) Please note the location is different from our
standard MIT meeting location.

2) Akamai has generously agreed to provide space
and 'free as in food' for this meeting.
Thank you to our sponsor!
http://www.akamai.com/

Summary

When Peer Production Succeeds
presented by Benjamin Mako Hill

Abstract

Why do some free software and
free culture projects succeed where
others fail?

Hear Benjamin Mako Hill speak on a
topic he has researched extensively.
If you are involved in a free software,
"open source," or free culture project,
or simply want to know how they
succeed (and why they sometimes
don't), this is an amazing presentation
you won't want to miss.

Hill will refer to research on free software
and free culture communities and suggest
that the ideal of peer production is only
rarely realized. He will show how
free software, and free culture, only
very rarely look like their poster children:
the Linux kernels and the Wikipedias.

Hill will present some of his research
comparing failed free culture projects
to successes to both suggest a
methodology, and a potential set of
answers, in order to answer the question:
Why do peer production projects
like Wikipedia work?

Hill will suggest, and try to show, that by
learning from our failures, instead of
ignoring or sweeping them under the rug,
we can make both free culture advocacy
and free culture practice more effective.

Presentation Outline

-- What is peer production?
-- How does peer production work?
e.g. in cases like Wikipedia
-- Why does peer production work?
-- Study peer production failures
-- Learn about peer production success
-- Q&A with Benjamin Mako Hill

About Our Speaker

Benjamin Mako Hill (http://mako.cc/) is a
scholar, activist, and consultant working on
issues of technology and society.

He is currently a researcher and
PhD candidate in a joint program
between the MIT Sloan School of
Management and the MIT Media Lab,
a fellow at the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society, and a Research
Fellow at the MIT Center for Civic Media.

His research focuses on sociological
analyses of social structure in
free culture and free software communities.

Hill has been a leader, developer, and
contributor to the Free and Open Source
Software community for more than a decade
as part of the Debian and Ubuntu projects.
He is the author of several best-selling
technical books, and a member of the
Free Software Foundation board of
directors. He is an advisor to the
Wikimedia Foundation and the
One Laptop per Child project.

Hill has a Masters degree from the
MIT Media Lab.

Transportation & Parking

The Akamai office is a short walk from the Kendall
Square T stop and other public transportation.

Metered parking should be available near our
location.

More Events & Announcements

International Day Against DRM, Fri May 3
The FSF will deliver a petition to the W3C
demanding that they turn down a proposal
to build DRM support into the fabric of
the Web. The campaign is being dubbed
"We don't want the Hollyweb."

For the petition delivery, we're going to be
delivering an Oscar to the W3C, to poke
some fun at their potential collusion with
Big Media. And we won't stop there;
we've got a red carpet, and we're all going
to dress like movie stars! The more of you
that can come and help us class up the
joint, the better.

We're going to meet at 2:00 PM at MIT
in Cambridge, exact location TBA.
If you'd like to come, please email
campaigns@fsf.org.